To evaluate a typical reform civil commitment law and to investigate those factors which affect subsequent dangerousness, commitment and institutionalization, we will follow for 6 months after their court hearings allegedly mentally ill respondents who have entered the civil commitment process. Particular attention will be paid to outpatient commitment and its ability to serve as an alternative to involuntary hospitalization for the dangerously mentally ill. Court records will provide basic legal, psychiatric and demographic data at the time of hearings. Mental hospital, community health center and court records along with phone calls to respondents will provide follow-up data on 6 month outcome. Interviews with a disproportionate sample of respondents committed to outpatient treatment and with their primary clinicians will provide data on illness, treatment, stress, and social support to observe their effects on dangerousness and reinstitutionalization. This sociological and psychiatric research should advance understanding of the structural and treatment processes which affect a significant proportion of the mentally ill in order to improve patient care, and the legal processing and handling of the allegedly dangerously mentally ill.